Pathway to Recovery® Series
Because we’re all in the same boat now.

Rowing a boat takes teamwork, especially during a storm. It requires people working together towards a common goal. If half of the rowers are determined to head north, while the other half are just as resolved to head south, nothing gets accomplished—no forward progress is made, and the boat will never reach the safe haven of land.  

COVID-19 is very likely to be the storm of our lifetime. It’s too early to say for sure, but there is some chance that history will describe it as our “Storm of the Century”.  Either way, it is a tempest that is rocking the very foundations of our economy and our society. We are all sitting together in a lifeboat now, heaving and swaying as the storm rages around us. And we all have a responsibility to grab an oar and do our part to help our neighbors and ourselves if we’re going to make it safely to shore. We have much to be thankful for—our “ship” is sound and our backs are strong—and we have a common goal.

We must recognize that there are a huge number of heroes who are already pulling with all their might on their oars, and trying their very best to keep us alive. They are our nation’s healthcare workers, medical professionals, public health officials, and emergency responders. They are straining and struggling, putting their very lives on the line for us and our families, day in and day out.  Their hands are blistered and their muscles are weary, and it is our duty and responsibility to man our own oars to try to take some of the burden off their shoulders.

Some oars are more powerful than others and the rowers who hold them can make enormous contributions to the success of our journey. Members of Congress must put aside their political differences and pull together as one to help us make it safely through this storm. We need them to recognize that when one side of the boat rows in one direction and the other side rows in the opposite direction, the ship is dead in the water.

One thing that everyone should be able to agree on is that local governments are going to need substantial financial assistance during this pandemic if we are to have any chance at all of a really full recovery within a reasonable time period.  

As a former disaster recovery coordinator for a county in upstate New York, I saw firsthand just how critical federal funding is to a community that is struggling to get back on its feet in the aftermath of a natural disaster. With significant federal help (in our case, almost $100 million), it still took my community almost 10 years to recover from a devastating flood. WITHOUT any federal assistance??  We would still be running county offices from rented garages and using second-hand folding tables as desks. We would also be driving our local government deeper and deeper into debt as we tried to deliver necessary services such as law enforcement, road and bridge repairs, and public health. And trying to do all that with a taxpayer base that was already tapped out. Our boat would be leaking, foundering, and in serious danger of actually sinking.

We at three+one® are also doing our part to pull on the oars.  We help local governments make the most of what they have, so they can collect that much less from the taxpayers. We provide data and financial forecasts on the funds that a county or municipality has on deposit. That information gives them the opportunity to maximize the value of that cash.  For example, New York’s Orange County has been using our liquidity analysis services since 2018. Last year they earned $2.0 million MORE than similar-sized counties! That represents $2.0 million of public services and infrastructure improvements that did not have to be paid for by their taxpayers.  Another great example is Lehigh County, Pennsylvania.  They earned about $489,000 annually in interest before partnering with three+one® in 2017.  Last year Lehigh County earned more than $2.0 million in interest on their available cash – despite the fact that interest rates have actually gone down!

Each and every one of us can make our own contributions to help our communities and our nation make their way through this disaster. Though we must certainly address the public health crisis of COVID-19, we must also address the financial aftermaths that this pandemic will surely have on our society over the next several years. It is critically important that local governments receive direct federal funding now—before it’s too late—if necessary public services are to be delivered without interruption.

After all, we are all in this same boat together. It will take the willingness of each and every one of us to grab ahold of an oar, plant our feet firmly on the deck, and then do our best to pull in the same direction as the person in front of us and the person behind us. Our journey will be challenging, full of surprises, and potentially dangerous. But in the end, if we can all just keep the distant shoreline in sight and pull together towards a common goal, we can and will make it through this storm.

The team at three+one® is proud to partner with NACo as we jointly assist the nation’s county governments during these challenging times. To learn more about NACo and how it works with three+one® to develop financially sound solutions, contact Kyle Cline at kcline@naco.org or by phone at (317) 502-7415).